1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to agricultural equipment and, more particularly, to a system through which agricultural articles can be sorted based upon size.
2. Background Art
A multitude of systems have been devised to sort agricultural articles, such as potatoes, by size. Typically, stages are built into these systems with gaps of different size to pass potatoes within different size ranges. Commonly, with potatoes, small potatoes of less than 1.5 inch nominal diameter are separated in one stage, with seed cut size potatoes, on the order of 1.5 to 2.0 inch nominal diameter, separated in another stage. A third stage may be provided to accumulate potatoes of nominal diameter greater than 2 inches.
It is known to use elongate rollers between which gaps of different size are formed. Gap adjustment capability is desirable to provide a system with versatility in terms of sorting different ranges of product diameter.
At the same time, these systems must be reliable in operation and not prone to jamming as might necessitate system downtime that could significantly financially impact operations.
The industry continues to seek sizer systems that are effective, reliable in operation, and financially feasible so as to make investment in this type of system practical as an alternative to systems that are more manually controlled.